Still working on it

I'm working as a Supply teacher (and supply LSA) at the moment - though obviously not being paid for being on school holidays.

I am still applying for jobs, and finding far too many schools do not even have the manners to send a no thank you email (I mean, how hard could it be?).

Many desperately need some good HR advice, as they don't seem to have a clue about how to write a job description, person specs are non-existent, and adverts often don't even say where the school is!  Given that they are relinquishing the support from their LEAs, this is maybe something Academies ought to have given some consideration to.

In this hiatus, I am also sewing up a storm, and have purchased a new sewing machine.  Perhaps I should tout myself as a textiles specialist instead of English....

I'm an applicant - get me out of here!

Oh my...., and gahhhhhhhhh!

Suddenly there seem to be lots of jobs to apply for, each and every single one wants my soul cut up into small pieces of information.

I hate application forms - they seem to nag at me like an Inquisitor.  If the boxes are too large, I feel I should fill them edge to edge and top to bottom.  If they are too small, I am obviously too expansive, too large, too OLD!  They take HOURS, even if I cut and paste - especially if I cut and paste.

The fact that I can access several LEAs works against me.  Each wants its own branded application form.  They are identical, or nearly identical, but not quite.  Different in small ways to catch out the recalcitrant cut and pasters like me - who are evidently supposed to enjoy retyping that almost-identical information as some sort of Herculean test of strength and endurance.

Next comes the personal statement - how can I fit my skillset square peg into the job-shaped round hole? Hammer it home with some well-turned phrases and explicit attention-drawing?  I could do with using arrows, highlighter and a laser-pointer.......

All this pales into insignificance beside the torment that is the interview - but I shall think about that another day.......

2011 Mantra: Decide - Commit - Succeed.

Thanks, diolch yn fawr, to lovely Welsh actress and Twitter chum, Rae Carpenter, for that one.  I'm a decisive person, it's true, but committing and succeeding have maybe been more driven by circumstance than anything else.

My immediate goal is to find a job, or jobs, doing the teaching thing I was destined for!  The good omens, if you believe in such things, are all there.

One omen (or maybe I started implementing my mantra early) is that I have finally finished and am using a patchwork quilt that I started as an undergraduate.  Time to close a door on the past, and move on.